Sleep Little Baby
by ChibiTotoroSophie
Summary: 08th MS Team- Shiro is sent to spy on the Sakhalins, and while following Aina, a guerilla-built-Gundam appears upon the scene, leading to a change in both Shiro and Aina's lifestyles. Please Please please please please R&R!!! PLEASE!
1. Painfull Shadow

Well hello all!!! Welcome to my beautiful little story: D heh. Well, as you can see, this is a 08th MS Team (that's a Gundam saga) FF, and I'm very proud of it, thank you very much!! There might be some odd pairing, but I'm still trying to work it all out! It actually started as a Gundam Wing FF, but I didn't like the way it was going, and I don't really know the characters as well as other people, so I converted it into MS Team, the characters I know much better anyways! Well, enjoy, and please review!!!

Ya ya ya, I don't own Gundam 08th MS Team, so please no sue. (I hate doing that.)

Prologue: Black Slab 

They stood in front of the black stone slab, soft grass at their feet and endless blue sky about their heads, broken only by the scattering of fluffy white clouds and reaching branches of trees. A little girl with light blue hair was holding a handful of different colored, flashy reds, yellows and radiant whites that stood out from the black stone like snow on mud. She wriggled her hand free of her mother's grasp and set the flowers gently on the grass in front of the stone, arranging them along the base of the rock in a colorful line. She looked up at her mother, whose hair was a blonde so bright it looked almost soft green. The little girl wondered why her mother was so quiet as she looked back at the arrangement of flowers and back to her mother's staring face.

            "Mummy?"

            The woman stared at the stone, her mouth in a tight line.

            "Mummy, why are you so sad?"

            Her mother's face held for a moment before turning to the girl. She stayed silent nonetheless.

            "Mummy, is this death?"

            Her mother licked her lips, preparing an answer that wouldn't frighten or hurt her daughter. She bowed her head slightly and took the small hand into her own again, "Who told you that?"

            The girl bit down on her lip, clenching her mother's hand. Her mother knelt down beside her.

            "This is where we bury those who Death had come for."

            The girl traced her fingers along the carved name, "This is a person?"

            "Only the body, but the soul is free."

            "Are you sad because you know this person?"

            The mother nodded.

            "Who is he?" The girl asked, looking up from the carved stone. "Do I know him?"

            Her mother smiled at her daughter's misuse of past thence. "You met him once, when you were a baby."

            "But I'm not a baby anymore," there was a note of what could have been triumph and pride in the young girl's voice. "But who was he?"

            "He…" she hesitated for a moment. "He…. he was a good friend…"

            The little girl ran her finger through the carved stone again.

*          *            *

Chapter 1: Painful Shadow 

"I'm sorry, gentlemen, but because of the rules of war, the possibility of you getting your property back is almost non-existent. You'll have to take it up with someone of higher authority if you want to peruse the problem more, but I don't suggest you do." Ginias Sakhalin stood at the head of a large table surrounded by men in black suits. They all listened to him attentively. A large man with a hooked nose stood, sweat clearly visible on his shining bald head.

"Alright, Ginias. We'll take it up with… higher authority, as you said. We need our land back at any costs." With a bow, the man turned and left, followed in suit by his crowd.

Ginias sunk back into his chair at the head of the table as they left. A pale hand appeared on his arm and gave it a gentle squeeze of support.

"It's fine, brother. They won't talk to anyone else. I know they won't." Aina smiled at her big brother and squeezed his arm again. Ginias smiled at his supportive sister and leaned over to give her cheek a kiss.

"Thank you, Aina." He smiled and got up. "I will met you back home for dinner, I have some more things to take care of before I leave." 

Aina stood and hugged him, then he turned and walked out the door.

Outside in the sun, a lanky man in a dark green suit watched from the steps as Aina came out of the large building and walked down to her limo. The man hopped from the steps, and around the building where he stopped and leaned against the wall. Another man came around from behind the trees and leaned next to him.

"I couldn't hear anything, Shiro. I tell you, this machine is a piece of shit."

"I'm going to follow her."

"But, Commander, it's not her we need anything from, it's Ginias, remember? Sanders and Michael aren't hiding in the bushes for nothing."

"Eledore, I want to see if I can get anything out of her. Won't take long, promise," with a wink, Shiro run around the bushes and jumped into the small buggy and raced down the back roads. Eledore sighed and ran back to the trees to signal Sanders and Michael.

Shiro drove down the dirt road quietly behind the shiny limo, the wind making his wild hair blow in all directions. He picked up a pair of binoculars from the ground and looked threw the back window of the limo.

Aina was sitting in the backseat. He couldn't see anyone or anything else in the car with her but the driver. He let the binoculars fall into his lap and flipped through a pile of papers sitting in the seat next to him.

The Federation had sent him a report which suspected Ginias, as close to the leader of the Zeons as anyone, to be plotting the building of a huge nuclear weapon. The mountain they had established base was an old mine, and a perfect place for the Zeons to build their weapon in secret. Shiro closed the folder and turned back to the road.

He closely followed the limo for about twenty minutes, everything was perfectly quiet and he suspected nothing unusual. The sky was clear and bright, no sign of rain, and the sun shone hotly down on him, warming his face and fingers that hugged the grips of the steering wheel. He listened to the birds chirp in the trees and blocked out the roar of the buggy's engine. The limo continued straight ahead.

Suddenly, out of the forest, a mobile suit jumped from the brush, covering the sky with a dark shadow, and into the road between him and the limo. Shiro swerved into a ditch and let go of the wheel to grab his gun in the backseat.

The limo driver swerved to the left as the suit come down towards them, the front wheels getting stuck in the ditch. The driver struggled to unbuckle himself and unholster his gun at the same time, but Aina threw open the door and run up the side of the ditch into the road. She ran into the middle of the street and leaned her head back, shading her eyes with a hand, looking up at the giant blocking the sun. She gasped and stumbled backwards into the driver, who had managed to get out of the car. She turned around to him. 

"Call Ginias!" She screamed and dropped to her knees, covering her head as a gust of wind blew into her, a product of one of the suit's gigantic feet slamming down on the ground next to her.

Shiro ran up to the side of the ditch on the right side of the road, a rocket launcher propped up on his shoulder. He squinted through the aim. The suit was an old patched up GM Ground Type, and only two of the original guns remained on the unit. The original cockpit had been replaced with that of a Zeon's, and the ugly purple clashed badly with the tan paint on the body. He snickered, clicking off the safety, and ran his tongue across his lips.

Aina swung around, her pale green dress billowing in the wind. Her pink sweater, draped across her shoulders, was loosened in the wind and flew across the road, landing on Shiro's launcher just before his finger pushed down the trigger.

He nearly fell back as the sweater blew against the gun, and as his finger squeezed, the pink exploded in a bullet of white smoke and yellow fire as the missile sailed off course through the air and past the suit, blowing up a small patch of trees across and down the road a ways from where he knelt. He dropped the weapon as a high shriek sounded from the middle of the road, and he turned his head, finally noticing Aina and the driver out in the open. Aina stood again, but as the missile exploded near her, she shrieked again and dropped to her now scrapped and bleeding knees, covering her head.

"Damn it!" Shiro shouted, and sprinted across the blacktop. He caught Aina around the waist with one arm as another foot came crashing down in front of them. The air pressure blew the limo driver back to hit the side of Shiro's buggy on the other side of the road, and sent him and Aina tumbling with the airflow to roll in the dirt in the ditch next to the limo. Aina scrambled to wipe dirt from her eyes, and sat up. Her eyes widened as she saw Shiro, struggling to unbury his leg from under a rather large log. She crawled over to him and helped him drag it off just as another foot crashed down, sending them flying back even further into the woodland.

They rolled in the leafy ground of the woods, limbs hitting trees and causing nasty bruises. Finally, they stopped, one hundred yards from the road. Shiro sat up, nursing a twisted ankle. Leaning against a tree, he finally managed to stand. Aina had rolled further ahead of him, but her flight abruptly came to a stop as her back slammed into a tree trunk, and her body slid limply down. She screamed in pain and fell forward. 

Hearing her painful call, Shiro turned and looked back. He face was bloody with cuts and scratches from passing trees and shrubbery, and with his twisted ankle, his left arm hung limply at his side, dislocated at the shoulder. He started forward to help the battered Aina when again the sky darkened and there was a rush of air as the foot smashed down on top of the trees.  

Aina flew backwards again against the tree, but Shiro disappeared within the shadows. There was a scream from within the dark.  With another gush of pressured air, the foot lifted, the air sucking downwards and putting immense pressure on the things below. Aina, still screaming, sat up and watched, tears running clean rivulets down her bloodied and dirtied cheeks, as the mobile suit marched away.


	2. Suspended

I finally got around to typing this! Hooray for me! Actually, I finally found it, since it had been packed up with all my other computer stuff, but now I'm done moving and hopefully I'll have more time to finish it!!!! Well, hope you like it. Please review, and please tell me any other suggestions for the title, cause I'm not sure if I like the one I have! Thanks ya muchly!

Chapter 2: Suspended

            Aina sat up from the brush and whipped dirt from her eyes. The sky was clear and blue again, there was no overhanging shadow of the suit. Her mind was a scene if muddled confusion, having hard time sorting out her thoughts. What was a suit doing out here? She pressed her back against the tree she had hit, and with a groan of pain managed to push herself up into a standing position. She tried to steady her wobbly feet enough to walk.

            She made it a few yards from where she landed, and then dropped to her knees in weariness. She looked through the woods to the side of the road where her compacted limo lay steaming on the road. Was it the man they had been talking to earlier in conference with Ginias, coming to kill her and hopefully make Ginias give in to them? Where was Shiro?

            "Shiro!" She yelled, looking around with wild eyes and standing back up, stumbling through the forest ahead of her.

            "Oh God, Shiro!" She gasped and covered her mouth in horror.

            He laid half in and half out of the wreckage the suit had caused. His legs were trapped under a heavy, rotting log, and scrap metal flown from the street lay scattered around him. Blood was draining freely from a cut on his face and it looked as if one eye was swollen shut. She ran over, ignoring the sneering pain in her legs, and knelt down beside him.

            "Shiro!" she yelled. "Shiro!"

            Shiro lifted one arm slightly and tried to turn over. He got half way onto his side when he fell back onto his stomach. There was a hole the size of a teacup in his chest. Aina held a hand over her mouth to keep from vomiting. 

            She managed to brush away some debris that covered him, and tried to use her weakened arms to roll the log off his legs, but it was to heavy and she fell back in defeat. She tugged on his arms to try to pull him out, but he cried out in pain as his shoulder dislocated.

            "Oh no, Shiro, I'm sorry. Oh God, I was just trying to…" she fell next to him, shaking and holding her weeping face in her hands. He dropped his head back to the dirt with his eyes squeezed shut.

            She cried for ten minutes, and nothing had changed when she stopped. Crying always made it feel better, she had spent countless hours crying, and it always made her feel better. But crying couldn't help this; Shiro was still trapped under a tree, and she had no ways of telling anyone where they were.

            She looked around in the pockets of her dress. Her phone, where was her phone? She crawled through the bushes until she reached the road and stood, shaking. She started to walk forward, to find the driver, when her high-healed shoe twisted to one side and she fell back down the ditch. With a scream, she landed on her back in the dirt.

            _Damn it!_

            When she rolled over, her hand landed on something hard buried underneath the forest leaves and mud. Scrambling, she scratched it out.

            The phone!

            Whipping mud from the buttons, she dialed the emergency number.

            Her mind still a whirling void of confusion and anger, she dropped the phone to sink in the mud and crawled back to Shiro.

*          *            *

            When Aina opened her eyes, there was a woman's gentle face hovering beside hers, and fingers softly probing her head. She groaned and tried to turn away.   

            "Miss. Sakhalin, please. I'm a doctor. You have a bad cut on her head." She finished bandaging and Aina sat up quickly, her own fingers exploring her wounds.

            She looked around the white washed walls and tile floored room. There was table next to the bed with a clock and a vase of flowers on it. 

"Shiro?" She asked, looking around again, as if expecting him to be lying next to her.

"The boy with you? He's in the TL." Aina looked at the doctor, her face scrunched in confusion. "Testing lab," the doctor smiled.

"Is he all right? Will he be ok?"

"I can find out for you, Miss. Sakhalin" She went to the wall and pressed a blue button. A small screen appeared on the wall, and she began touching it.

Aina flinched nervously.

"Crushed under a tree? Well… surprisingly, he survived… Broken ribs, dislocated shoulder," at this, Aina turned red, "metal bit in his eye, large chest wound."

"He'll be all right?" She got out of bed while the doctor's back was turned and tested her footing.

"Yes, the TL staff is doing all they can. But it seems…" she was cut short by the flap of the doors as Aina frantically rushed to the TL.

She found the heavy metal doors labeled _Testing Lab_ locked, and started pounding on the little slotted glass windows with the flats of her palms.

"Open this door! I am Aina Sakhalin! Please open the door! I have to see Shiro! Please, open the doors!"

By the time a face came into view from the window, Aina's shouting had attracted the attention of several hospital guards, and her voice had grown hoarse. When a woman with a round face and square glasses finally unlocked the door the let Aina in, the crowd of guards sighed and moved back to their positions.

Aina looked at the woman, "Where is Shiro?" She demanded, her usually good temper flaming in her eyes.

The room they had stepped into was not more than 20 feet wide and 25 feet long. One wall was lined with large tables covered in computers and electronics. The other walls were completely covered with long, rectangular windows, and a small metal door leading to the room beyond. Aina pressed herself up against the window and looked down into the other room.

The room was no bigger than the one she was in. The walls her white, the floor was white, and there was a fan on the ceiling. Wiring trailed from the bed in the center of the room and connected into the walls. Aina let her eyes travel the path of one of the wires, and gapped in shock.

The doctors had attached wires to his temples, arms, and chest, even the palms of his hands. They had wrapped his stomach with brownish colored bandages, which Aina though might be the medicine coming through from underneath. Both his eyes were closed, but his eyelids flickered, like the balls under them were rolling in fit-less sleep. A large black and purple bruise covered one of his eyes and down onto his cheekbone. Aina winced as if with pain from just looking at him.

"Shiro," she whispered. The woman who opened the door came up next to her with a clipboard.

"There was a metal sliver in his eye," the woman stumbled. "And… from the waist down… he… he was paralyzed."

Aina gasped, "What?!"

"From the impact of the car," she replied.

Aina turned back to the window.

"But it's not as bad as other cases. Others would have died with his injury. We think it was the pressure of air from the guerilla suit which lightened the impact of the tree before it crushed him."

Aina closed her eyes, _Oh, Shiro. _ When she opened them, she turned to the door leading down to Shiro.

She hesitated before walking up to his bed. Despite the movements of his eyelids, he looked so peaceful. She didn't think she'd ever see him as peaceful as he looked now. She stepped up to his bed and looked down on him.

_Shiro…_ she thought, holding back tears in her watering eyes. She reached out to take his hand, but stopped and let her arm fall back against her leg. He had never held her hand before, and it felt wrong to do so when he couldn't hold her back.

"It's my fault…"she whispered, "I… I swear… on my life… I will see you though this… oh, Shiro…" Her voice wavered and she walked stiffly from the room.

Aina sunk into the warm water and let the bubbles float around her neck. She ran a wet hand through her hair, and slicked back the bangs with water. Finally, some time to relax.

After spending a month going back and forth from the hospital, she had the stitches removed from her leg, and Shiro was doing slightly better. He was still confined to his bed because any movement of his ribs would alter their healing process and bring him right back to where he started. But he had tried several times to stand when the doctors had left. They only resulted in a crumbled heap on the floor because of his jelly-for-legs. He didn't mind the pain in his stomach or his cracked ribs, but what discouraged him the most were his paralyzed legs. He has been an extremely active person, the Federation had evidence of that, and it seemed that an accidental twist in fate made his lower body useless. 

There was still a small trace of purple under his eye bandage, but the medical staff was amazed by how fast he was healing. They all said it was the transfer from space to Earth that made his body more able to cope.

Aina only had a small scar compared to all Shiro has gone through, and she felt guilty. If he hadn't thrown her from the road, she would probably be six feet under now.

She let the bar of soap slip between her fingers and fall to the bottom of the tub.

The driver hadn't been so lucky. The front end of the car had been completely crushed under the heel of guerilla suit, thus adding another stone to the graveyard. Thank God he hadn't had a family to explain the loss to. 

The news of the accident of the 08th Federation MS Team's commander, and the sister of infamous Ginias Sakhalin, genius designer of the Principality of Zeon, had been in the news since Aina had left the hospital the first day. The media monitored their well-being and Aina's face had donned the front page of every newspaper on the planet. She had gotten a letter from Australia, where Norris was taking a vacation out in the bush, saying that he had heard and would try and get up to see her as soon as possible. Not knowing where else to send anything, the members of Shiro's team had sent packages and letters, saying they would try and come and visit him without being caught by their fellow Feds, since there was a controversy going on between the Feds and the Zeons over who should get Shiro. 

She sunk into the bubbles further, letting the hot water loosen up her muscles. She had been moving so much in the past month, and had taken more than her share of painkillers. Several trips to the hospital everyday, dealing with the media and signing papers had led her to have stress-related headaches. It'd be so much easier if her brother could break from his schedule and come to her. But Ginias had gone to space to deal with the designs of the classified building of the Apsaras. 

There was a soft tap on the bathroom door. Aina looked up.

"Telephone, Miss. Sakhalin. From the hospital."

She sighed and started to get up. "Tell them I'll be right there." She pulled on a heavy bathrobe and stood dripping on the floor.


	3. Music of the Nerves

 Chapter 3:

            Aina watched the white van pull up the drive and stop in front of the main doors. The large green writing on the side of the white can read the name of the hospital and it's telephone number. 

            The phone call she had gotten from the hospital was one of the doctors treating Shiro Amada. She has said he was well enough to go home, where she said it would probably be a more comfortable place for him. The problem was, there was no record or where 'home' was except his old colony back in space. Aina needed no further evidence, and offered him a home at the Sakhalin Mansion. 

            Two men in white coats got out of the van and went around tot eh back. One unloaded a ramp while the other climbed in and carefully wheeled down Shiro.

            Aina coved a laugh. He couldn't have looked more miserable. His face was pulled in a tight scowl to replace the normal sheepish grin, and he fingered the leavers of his wheelchair with loathing in every movement. The men carefully got him up to the doors where Aina thanked them and watched the van pull away. She looked down at Shiro. What could she possibly say to make him feel at home?

            "I… we've gotten a room set up for you."

            He had let his face relax a little and was now staring at the doors.

            "Shall we go… see? Or do you want to do something else?"

            "What else can I do?" He had a point. She opened the door then turned to bring him in, but he was already past her. "I'm not brain-dead, too." 

            She sighed and closed the door behind him.

            Within a month after moving in, Shiro had brightened up considerably. He smiled now, laughed and talked with the people of the house. He stubbornly tried to stand and walk, but he felt like a baby when Aina tired to help him, trying to get him to catch his balance on their arms, or handing him a stick the hospital has given him for when he did stand. 

            Aina sat at a couch at the end of his room, letting the sun warm her arms and legs while keeping a steady gaze on the boy across the room. He sighed, shoving food around a plate on his lap and looked up at her.

            "I never thanked you, you know."

            She looked surprised, "You know you don't have to…"

            He shook his head. "No one else would have helped me the way you have."

            "Your team…"

            He looked down, "I almost expected them to pretend to care."

            She got up and went over to him, knelt beside him and put a hand on one of his lifeless knees. "They're just confused, or angry," she said kindly. "They don't know what to do. They never thought a Zeon would offer to take you."

            "But they know you!"

            "That doesn't matter to anyone but us, Shiro."

            He looked down at her and smiled. "Thank you." He placed his hand over hers and squeezed it gently. Smiling, she pushed herself up, leaning her hands heavily on his knees.

            "Ow!"

            "What?!" She stepped back, scared, eyes wide.

            "Ow!" He repeated. They both went quiet for a moment. Then Shiro slammed his fist as hard as he could down onto his knee. "Ooww!" he screamed in pain.

            "Shiro!" Aina laughed with joy, "Shiro! Your legs!" She touched his leg gently.

            Laughing, he drummed his hands on his legs, feeling prickles climbing up through his thighs. He laughed loud and hard despite the tingling and pain racing through his leg muscles as he drummed, "I can feel them! They tingle!" Laughing, Aina threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, kissed his cheek and ran to the door.

He worked at it almost everyday in the privacy of his room, or out in the gardens. He was finally able to send away the people who helped bathe him, and by the time the leaves started to fall from the trees, he could shuffle across the room before having to sit down and catch his breath. Aina spent day after day with him, helping where she was able. She would sit and talk while he got warmed up, and he liked the way she didn't beg to help him, only going over to him when he asked. He felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders when she laughed, the sound of her voice encouraging him even more.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we could go out to the stables in a week." Aina said, "It's great." She smiled and kissed him lightly in joy. With the touch of his lips to hers, he felt a gentle flutter in his chest, like a butterfly had flown down his throat and landed softly on his heart. It was like he had been running through a field of birds and they had all taken flight up to the sky as he passed. He looked at Aina, her pale blond head leaning against his knees, watched her eyes as they stared out the window, her face shining with excitement, and he knew what the feeling was. A stone-dropt-to-the-bottom-of-his-heart feeling, and he grinned. He was scared to death of that feeling.

Shiro sat in a cushioned chair watching the snowfall outside the window. He had been here almost ten months now, and he was starting to feel at home.

Aina wouldn't let him do anything to help around the house. Cleaning up after meals, bringing out the laundry or even making his own bed. But she did let him feed the horses, and for the past couple weeks he had been riding regularly. He could walk in a slow shuffle using a stick for balance.

It was almost Christmas, and a huge evergreen tree had had been set up in the living room. Sparkly wrapped presents were already filling the base of the tree.

A bird landed on the windowsill and pecked at the seed scattered there.

That feeling in his chest, the one he had whenever he saw Aina, was love. It had grown stronger so that now whenever the door opened, he looked up, eager to Aina's beautiful face. He knew he shouldn't let the feeling take him over, because he knew that as soon as he could walk, really walk, he would have to leave and return to his team and the Federation. He had made up his mind that he never backed out of something he laid down on the table. He loved her, but he couldn't do anything about it; who ever heard of a Fed and a Zeon, two completely different sides, falling in love?

There was a tap on the door, and Aina walked in, decked in a green dress the color of pines with a ribbon in her hair to match. He smiled. "Eledore was just on the phone," she said, seating herself on a couch. "He said that his ship was just leaving. He should be here by tomorrow." Shiro nodded.

"I haven't heard from any of them in a while," he said, sounding almost sad. "I was starting to think they didn't care about their old commander." His smile was weak. "Last I heard, Karen was being shipped off to command another team, and Sanders reeking havoc at the Zeon camps all over Asia. And that was on the news." He sighed a bit.

"It will be nice to have someone here," Aina looked out the window at the bird.

The next day, as promised, Eledore arrived. He trudged in with loads of luggage from his trip, and was bundled up in a large winter coat with scarves and mittens to match. He took of his gloves and blew on his numb fingers.

"Sorry about the bags, man" he grinned, looking at Shiro who was leaning heavily on his walking stick. "Had to make out like a tourist just to get into the stupid city. Zeons and their…" he slowed to a stop and chuckled at Aina.

She shrugged and smiled, "That's alright. I agree on you there." She laughed with him. Eledore beamed and pulled off his layers. Aina turned to a man standing at the door. "Could you take his bags up to his room?"

The man nodded, "Yes, Miss. Sakhalin." 

They watched the man carry the heavy bags up the stairs, and then Shiro looked to Eledore. "What did you bring? You'd got enough suitcases to carry feed for a thousand elephants!"

Eledore grinned. "Gotta bring my music with me everywhere, you of all people should know that."

Aina smiled, then waved them to the living room. "Hot chocolate, anyone?"

The morning before Christmas Shiro woke to the sound of laughter and busy talking. He got up, dressed and made his slow way down to the living room. 

Aina and a young girl where putting on hats just as he entered. They quickly said good morning, Aina gave his cheek a quick peck then went out the door in a flurry of snow.

"Last minute shopping," Eledore yawned.

"Ah."

"Coffee?" He picked up a pot on the table and poured him a cup, "Have to say, it's pretty damn good. Not as muddy as the crap we used to make but I suppose it'll have to make do." He took a steaming sip and waved at his mouth.

The presents under the tree seemed to have grown over night, like Santa had come a day early. He couldn't help eyeing them like a hopeful child.

"I brought a bunch," Eledore said, noticing Shiro looking in the direction of the tree. They sat in silence for a long time, both enjoying their coffee. Finally, Eledore smacked his lips and set his cup down. "So how's live here?" he asked. "Livin' with Aina, huh?" He winked and Shiro gave him a smirk.

"It was nice of her to let me stay. I'm actually surprised the Feds would let me out of the damn hospital without killing someone," he said, ignoring the wink. "They didn't even try to fight for me, huh?"

Eledore shrugged and moved back to his topic. "Look at this place!" He waved an arm around the huge room. "I mean this place is freaking giant!" He dropped his arms and propped his feet up on the glass coffee table. "Anyways, I've been here only three days, already feels like home."

Shiro looked at his friend. He could easily tell that he was dodging having to ask about what happened. He glanced at Shiro for out of the corner of his eye and saw the look on his face, one of mock disinterest. He sighed. "At least you're not dead yet."

Shiro nodded and shrugged a bit.

"Man," Eledore breathed. "What else will you live through? I mean no offence, but some of those stunts you pulled with the team… we should've been dead a looooong time ago. It's not good to play God, you know, Commander." He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. "A run-in with a MS for no apparent read is a bit strange, don't'cha think? A little over the edge just to kill one person, I mean… a Gundam?"

"It was just some crazy guy who probably hired a hit man to kill the Sakhalins."

"His choice of weapon was happened to be a Guerilla suit?"

Shiro nodded again. "Someone wants to get Ginias back to Earth," he whispered. "He's working on a new weapon up in a colony…"

Eledore's eyes widened, "When'd you find that out?!"

"Aina trusts me."

"But this…."

"I know. She knows she shouldn't have. But who could I tell?" He smirked, "You're a musician, and anyway, the team's broken up." He paused. "Where did everyone end up?"

Eledore rolled his eyes back in thought, "Well… Karen's commanding a team off in the jungle somewhere, Sanders… I think he trouped off to Asia, too. Last I heard of Michel, he was goin' back to that girl of his, Bebe, I think her name was?" he shrugged. "And I write music," He smiled.

"What about Kiki?"

"Ah, the Guerilla girl? I think she went back to her village."

Shiro nodded, again, and tapped his leg. There was a silence.

Eledore looked at him, "How long you been walking?"

"Just a month or so. I actually never thought I'd be able to feel them again… it came as a surprise, for both of us." He smiled, "I can walk again. Not as good as I was, yet." He tapped his cane on the floor.

Eledore laughed. "You, having to use a cane! Ha!" He laughed mockingly. Shiro laughed with him. As their laughter died off, Eledore said, "Thinking about going into space again?"

Shiro looked thoughtful. "Maybe."

"Just don't do anything stupid, you just keep playing God as long as it keeps you alive. For one thing… Aina…" he trailed off, not sure if he was touching a delicate subject. After a moment, he broke out in a laugh. "Lets just enjoy this Christmas, last one was a fucker." He grinned.


End file.
